LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

THE India Post Payments Bank, which was launched on September 1 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will help in financial inclusion and is a welcome measure. But the whole edifice of the IPPB is based on the existing infrastructure of the India Post, as post offices has been made access points. The burden of providing doorstep banking to the consumers lies upon the humble postman and ‘grameen dak sevaks’. While the postmen and GDS staff are being burdened with new tasks, in addition to their already existing responsibilities, no visible effort is being made to address their genuine grievances. The postmen travel delivering mail with their bicycles and are the sole representatives of the government of India in distant villages. But they have to often wait to obtain their proper uniforms, shoes and umbrellas. The recruitment process is also slow and often vacant positions are not filled. The central government should ensure that the human resource crunch faced by the India Post is solved to ensure that the services offered are qualitative.

VIKAS KAMAT, AQUEM

Plight Of Gaumata And Motorists

WOULD you throw your mother out on to the streets? But is not that what Goa is doing today? Cow, which is revered in the country as ‘gaumata’, sits forlorn and virtually immobile on Goa’s roads. She sits there with hundreds of her bovine sisters all across the state, not just on the interior roads, but even on highways, endangering her life and certainly the lives of those who call her mother. The other day I witnessed a calf being hit by a car. The motorist was driving slowly trying to avoid a herd, when one of the younger ones darted straight into his path. He braked hard and was able to minimise the impact. The calf’s front legs buckled under her and the poor thing fell to the ground, unable to stand. To the motorist’s credit, he didn’t drive away. He stopped, got out of his car and immediately dialled a number. In a few minutes, the animal rescue vehicle was at the scene. These bovine ‘traffic islands’ and ‘speed-breakers’ of Goa are a damning testimony of the callousness of the administration. The owners of these cattle do not care about them or about the problems they cause, but it is shockingly shameful to see the total lack of concern for public safety on the part of lethargic administration. It is time the authorities did something about it. Either lay heavy fines on people who own these herds. Or, better still, set up cattle pounds, where these animals can be kept till they are claimed. It is time for them to demonstrate that they care as much for their citizen’s safety as for the sacred animal.

IVAN ARTHUR, ANJUNA

On Gains Of Note Ban

THE annual report of the Reserve Bank of India has said that Rs 15.31 lakh crore out of the total 15.41 lakh crore worth demonetised currency, which comes out to be approximately 99.3 per cent of scrapped notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000, returned to banks. This indicates that either fake currency has been accounted for in the system by the RBI after checking, or some duplicate series of notes might have been issued in earlier regime. Apprehensions in this respect were clear to the RBI when it stopped giving daily figure of the demonetised currency deposited in banks during the demonetisation period. It was the reason that in the last week of December 2016, the RBI had asked depositors to provide source of the deposited demonetised currency, though later it was withdrawn. Moreover no decision has been taken to accept the demonetised Indian currency held with banks in Nepal and Bhutan where system allows Indian currency in normal circulation. Now it is clear that decision has not been taken in this regard because in such a scenario, deposited total demonetised Indian currency may cross 100-per cent mark.